Diana Ladris
by cyborg-lunar-princess
Summary: Maybe the FAYZ never happened. Maybe Diana Ladris was just a girl at Coates Academy that the boys lusted after and the girls envied. But Diana's life, even without the FAYZ, was far from normal.


Ch. 1

Diana Ladris was sitting in the back of her third period math class. Her teacher, Mrs. Stevens, was standing in front of the chalkboard, teaching the class formulas about triangles. Diana was easily the smartest kid in the class, which she had done on purpose. She had the option to move up to algebra II, even as just a freshman, but she declined. She wouldn't be the smartest up there, with all of the tenth graders. Here, she felt like she won.

Of course, that meant she didn't have to try very hard. Right now, for example, she was resting her head on her hand, halfway to dozing off. Her dark brunette hair fell over her face.

"Miss Ladris, I hope you're paying attention back there," said Mrs. Stevens. Her beady eyes looked over at Diana. Diana wanted to roll her eyes, but she settled for satire. She sat up straight and gave Mrs. Stevens her most innocent smile.

"Of course," she said in a sickeningly sweet voice. Mrs. Stevens looked like she wanted to respond to Diana, but decided against it.

All teachers did. No one crossed Diana Ladris, not even the adults.

Still, Diana didn't want to push anything, so she flipped a page in her notebook and started to copy down notes. When she looked up, she swore that for a moment, she saw Mrs. Stevens disappear. The chalk she was holding fell to the ground, and Diana blinked to make sure she wasn't dreaming.

But she was. Mrs. Stevens was still in the exact same place as before. She leaned down to pick up the dropped piece of chalk, then continued her boring lesson.

 _Weird_ , Diana thought, but she didn't press the issue. The kid who sat in front of her, Drake Merwin, had a big head, and it was probably just concealing Mrs. Steven's petite figure.

The bell rang then, and Diana breathed a sigh of relief. She had lunch next, which meant a break. _Of course_ , she thought to herself as she gathered her Coates-assigned backpack and slung it over her shoulder, _it also means Caine._

Caine Soren was Diana's age, but carried himself as if he were years beyond his age. His uniform was always pressed and ironed, his hair was always gelled, and he walked with his spine straight and his chin up. No one messed with Caine, not even bullies like Drake Merwin. Caine wasn't big or tough or strong, but he was extremely determined. If he wanted something, he wouldn't rest until it was his. The downside of that was that the one thing he wanted the most was Diana, and the feeling was not mutual.

Caine and Diana didn't have classes together, but they did have the same lunch period, so he would hang around her like an attached puppy dog the entire time. His constant attempts at asking her out annoyed her, but a small part of her enjoyed them a little. Diana loved attention, and Caine was willing to give it to her.

Diana breezed past the line, kids backing up to let her in ahead of them. Diana had no problem waiting in lines, but Caine usually ordered kids to let her go first. And while waiting wasn't an issue, getting first pick of the already disgusting cafeteria food had its privledges. That day, for example, Diana was able to get a salad with spinach leaves that weren't wilted. She held her container, looking around for Caine.

"Diana!" he called, waving at her with a smile on his face.

Without saying anything, Diana began walking forward, Caine turning to walk beside her.

"You look beautiful," he told her.

"Thank you."

They walked to the usual table that they shared with Drake Merwin, a younger boy named Jack who helped Caine learn programming (Caine was on levels of engineering the school didn't provide, but twelve-year-old Jack knew practically everything), a sullen boy nicknamed Panda, and a kid they'd dubbed Paint because of his addiction to drinking paint of all colors.

Jack was already sitting at their table; the only middle schooler allowed to sit with them, he looked very out of place. He had a Mac book sitting open in front of him.

"Caine," he said, when he saw them approaching. "Did you do your homework last night?"

"Relax, Jack," Caine snapped. "I'll get to it."

Diana sat down across from where Jack and Caine were. "Don't yell at him."

"Sorry," Caine said immediately. Diana held back a smirk. Caine was usually Mr. I Do Whatever I Want, but Diana had the power to pull back on his reigns.

Panda and Paint showed up and mumbled hellos, both focusing on their trays of cardboard flavored pizza. Neither of them liked any of the others much, and Diana couldn't say she liked them either, but they were stronger as a group. People like Caine wouldn't be taken seriously if they didn't have followers. People like Diana, however, didn't care. Diana was Diana, no matter who she was around.

Drake Merwin was the last to arrive. He always sat at the very end of the table, a good few seats away from Diana. Diana didn't like many people, but she detested Drake. Not only was he a bully, he was a psychopath. She had heard stories of him microwaving animals, beating up kids for no reason other than it gave him pleasure. She'd talked to Caine multiple times about cutting ties with Drake, but oddly enough, that was the one thing she couldn't get him to budge on. It wasn't that Caine and Drake were necessarily friends, but there was something about the boy that made Caine hold onto him.

"What's up, Diana," Drake grinned at her.

"Hey, psychopath," she said, giving him a fake-sweet smile. If her words bothered Drake, he didn't show it, just continued to shovel mashed potatoes into his mouth.

"No, no, you messed up there," Jack said, pointing at the screen. He pushed his thick black glasses up on his nose. Caine sighed impatiently; he didn't like being wrong. Diana smiled to herself. As mature as Caine made himself seem, she knew he wasn't really much better than everyone else at Coates. He was a teenage boy, after all.

"So, Caine," Drake said, his mouth still full of half-chewed food. "Are you staying at Coate's for the holidays?"

"Haven't decided yet," Caine replied, looking at Diana hopefully.

"Well, I'm going home," Diana said, with a pointed look at Caine. The sad thing was, she'd much rather stay at Coate's with Caine and Panda and even Drake than go home for the holidays. Her home was a very unwelcoming place.

The truth was, Diana was tough because she had to be. Her father had abandoned their family not long after Diana was born, and her mother was an addict in more ways than one-addicted to alcohol and addicted to dating toxic, creepy guys. Some of them snuck up on Diana in the showers and pretended to search for their razors while they were really peeking through the clear curtains at her. Having developed rather early for her age, she attracted a lot of their attention. She had told her mom multiple times about her frustrations, but she hadn't been much help. Half the time, she was too drunk to even remember to take care of Diana. Ever since coming to Coate's, Diana didn't care as much. The school fed her. The school taught her. It gave her a room with a bed and blankets, even though the room came with a creepy preteen roommate named Penny. But she'd take Penny over her mom's pedophile boyfriends any day.

Of course, during Thanksgiving and Christmas, that wasn't an option. The one thing her mother insisted on was that she went home for the holidays. "Family is important," she'd tell Diana. Every time she did, Diana wanted to yell, "Where was family when Ted felt me up last summer and you didn't do anything? Where was family when you forgot to feed me for a whole day when I was a kid?" The list was ongoing. But Diana never brought any of it up.

"Oh," said Caine. "Well, I'm not sure."

"I'm staying," Paint chimed in. His mouth had specks of green on it.

"Was I asking you?" Drake snapped. Paint leaned back against his seat, as if trying to distance himself from Drake as much as possible.

Diana wanted to shudder whenever she was near Drake. She knew Caine liked him, or at least wanted to keep him around, but something about him seemed...off.


End file.
